Review: 'Entangled' at the Actor's Church, Covent Garden (dance)

So what happens when you take away the smoke and mirrors? When you view that bright and shiny something you adored under a new light? Do the cracks suddenly become visible? The gloss lose its sheen?

These were questions I asked myself as I sat down at the Actor’s Church in Covent Garden last Thursday night, primarily to take in for the second time threshold, Joss Arnott Dance’s stunning piece that I enjoyed so much during July’s Cloud Dance Festival. The church setting was gorgeous, but as the visible violet spotlights lit up from atop the sanctuary’s grand doric columns and a thin mist of dry ice wafted in, I couldn’t help but think that this might not work quite as well as it did on the Cochrane’s intimate, dramatically lit stage…

Joss Arnott Dance performing theshold at Cloud Dance Festival by Jui-Wei Hung

Happily, I was wrong.

Opening the evening’s bill of performances, threshold actually took on a whole new dimension in this space. The sharp, incredibly dynamic movements were still there, but under the harsh new light articulation became more apparent, intricacies more eloquent, and the fantastic strength of the dancers more exposed. Where Joss excels is in utilising pace, tempo and staging to ensure his choreography remains gripping throughout the duration of the performance. Bursts of great physicality are tempered by more quiet, introspective flashes of personal exploration and no detail is left undirected: ripples running through the torso, the turn of a head, slow rotation of a wrist and glances between dancers are delicious touches that give viewers (and the dancers) so much to explore. A moment of hunched over heartbeats that swept past at CDF was eerily affecting in this performance. I’m excited to see what this incredibly promising young company does next, and hope that Joss’ next choreographic outing will continue to build on the principles that make threshold so strong.

Entangled was a mixed bill event showcasing five up and coming companies, and I was able to take in two more on the evening I attended: Collisions Dance Company and Big Beef Dance Theatre. Collisions, a contemporary ballet repertoire company, presented a work entitled Inertia, discussing this namesake in both the physical and social sense. The piece progressed from a range of more melancholy, meditative explorations to a latter half in which movement seemed to have won out and completely possessed the performers, thrilling and then exhausting them. Perhaps it was the challenge of addressing this topic after so dynamic a preceding performance, but Inertia, while thoughtfully danced, failed to make much of an impact. It also unfortunately held up a spotlight to one of my pet peeves in young companies: building a performance with dancers of unequal technical ability. The too-common practice is distracting and regrettably detracts from the choreographic vision.

Big Beef Dance Theatre proceeded to offer up a completely different flavour quite unlike anything I’ve recently seen with gaME+YOU. Reading in the programme notes that music would be provided by Vanessa Carlton, Kenny Rogers, Billy Ray Cyrus, B*witched, and John Travolta and Olivia Newton John (just to name a few), I was notably sceptic. And while the structure of the piece—a sort of comedic improvisation to flash cards and music cues—wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, it would be unfair to say that it was performed with anything less than absolute conviction. The cheeky girls could break out a smile on even the most fervent of cynics and I certainly found myself sporting more than one or two. What I did take issue with (and have seen similarly in other companies’ programme notes) is the need to justify a work like this with the aim of ‘making dance more accessible for all to understand and enjoy’. If technically dumbing something down to its most basic incarnation is the way to make it more accessible these days then the future of dance is dire indeed…

Which brings me onto pet peeve #2: choreographers please release yourselves of the need to explain your work quite so much. Trust your audiences more and if the choreography is really up to scratch they will find meaning. And similarly if your piece is so complex that it requires a deep explanation then you are the only ones to blame for any lack of accessibility.

And that goes for you too Joss. Reading and re-reading the threshold programme notes for the nth time while waiting on the evening to begin I came to realise that all this ‘dynamic physicality’ and ‘extremities of body mechanics’ speak is really just code for ‘we’ve put together a crackingly well thought out dance to a cracking soundtrack using extremely talented dancers- enjoy!’ Perhaps you might try that one next time. I’m sure your audiences would eat up the work equally as much…

About these ads